Salary Predictor FAQ

What is the Dice Salary Predictor?

The Dice Salary Predictor provides salary estimates for tech professionals based on their job title, location, years of experience, and skill profile. Our machine-learning model incorporates the desired salary information tech professionals disclose to potential employers on Dice. The model currently uses over 600,000 data inputs, with new data being added weekly.
Dice not only provides an accurate salary estimate but also useful information about which skills can maximize your salary, as well as the most common, highest paying or most in-demand career paths from your current job title. This helps you make more informed decisions about what new skills to acquire and envision new paths for your next move.
IMPORTANT: Our public salary predictions show a salary range. To get a more precise, personalized salary figure, login to your Dice account or register for a free account today. Inside your profile, you can fully customize your list of skills, add your education level and more. Become a member.

What should I do with my salary prediction?

Use your salary prediction as a snapshot of where you stand today and to help you evaluate your current salary and potential job offers. We will also show you how much certain skills could add to your salary, helping you make better career development decisions around which new skills to learn, and what possible career paths you could pursue based on your current position.

Does my salary prediction affect my Dice profile?

No. The salary prediction itself does not affect your profile in any way and will not be shared with recruiters or employers. If you wish to share your desired salary with employers you can enter this within your profile by entering your compensation into the “Desired Salary” or “Desired Hourly Rate” fields.

How are the salary predictions calculated?

Our salary predictions are based on Dice’s proprietary machine-learning algorithm. Our predictive model is different from many others available as is not limited by individual sample sizes. Rather, it predicts salaries based on more than 600,000 values tied to job title, location, and skills, and by recognizing patterns and values for the factors that make up your unique salary prediction.

Why are you comparing my salary prediction to either nationwide salaries or to a different job title than I entered?

Our salary predictions are based on Dice’s proprietary machine-learning algorithm, which estimates salaries based on more than 600,000 data points tied to job title, location, experience, and skills. This allows our algorithm to make accurate predictions by recognizing patterns in the values to predict different combinations of these factors, even when there aren’t many data points that exactly match your specific combination. However, when we show how your prediction compares to the market of similar tech pros, we need a meaningful sample size. Therefore, in some cases, your prediction will be compared against a more general job title, or against nationwide salaries instead of the location you entered.

What's the difference between this salary tool and others?

Dice caters specifically to tech professionals. With this, we have a deep understanding of the tech landscape and job market, including the depth of data to model exactly which factors have the greatest impact on accurately predicting salaries. For example, tech skills are often more important than your actual job title, years of experience, or education. While all these factors absolutely matter in terms of your job prospects and salary prediction, the best way to receive an accurate estimate is by providing your unique profile of skills – both tech related and soft skills. By using a predictive machine-learning model rather than a data sampling model, we can estimate salaries for even rare combinations of location, title, experience and skills by projecting how each component impacts salaries. This prevents the issue many other salary tools face where they’re limited by sample size to provide you with a useful salary estimate. Finally, Dice shows you how combinations of skills can maximize your salary, helping you make better career development decisions around which new skills to learn, and envision possible career paths you could pursue from your current position.

I usually use the Dice Salary Survey. What's the difference?

The Dice Salary Survey is an annual online survey we run in the US to provide insight into salary trends and sentiment and expectations around tech salaries. Since we’ve run the same survey for more than 10 years, we can report on long-term trends and pull from a wealth of historical data. But while the salary survey reports on city-wide averages across jobs, or shows nationwide trends for job titles and skills, it does not provide predictions of the combination of all these factors. The Salary Predictor is the best way to get an accurate salary estimate based on your unique profile.

How often is your data updated?

Dice users are always adding more data points to our already robust foundation of more than 600,000 inputs. The model is typically updated on a weekly basis.

How do I define "experience"?

This field relates to your relevant work experience for the title of which you wish to receive a salary prediction for. If all your work experience is relevant to the role you’re considering, include all of it. Otherwise, include only the portion of your experience that is relevant.

My prediction seems too high or too low, why is that?

We do our best to ensure you receive an accurate prediction. If something doesn’t seem quite right, please make sure you are making full use of all the fields. The best way to do this is to use the Salary Predictor within your Dice profile and by uploading your resume, which will automatically parse your location, job title, years of experience, and your unique set of skills – or you can enter these by hand. Most tech pros have 20-25 skills listed in their profile, so predictions with fewer skills may be less accurate.

Why did my salary prediction decline when I added a new skill?

Our predictions are based on a machine-learning algorithm. With this, it learns to recognize patterns and combinations of skills that positively or negatively impact your salary. In some cases, you may notice that adding a new skill will negatively impact your salary prediction. For the most accurate overall estimate, be sure to add a full set of skills – an average tech professional lists between 20-25 skills on their profile.

I’m an employer. How can I use this information?

We’re excited you’re interested in our Salary Predictor tool! We’ve developed a specific version to fit your needs as an employer. Explore our Tech Salary Predictor for Employers. and feel free to contact our team at support@dice.com for additional information.